The Magic of Madness
by withoutwingsx
Summary: Allen Walker believed that he was normal. He was just a young man attending university and eventually teaching at it. He was different yes, in his manner of speaking and in his mind. But who could have imagined the madness behind a seemingly merely odd man. The charismatic madness that affected so many lives. Especially theirs. YULLEN


**My inspiration partially stems from the movie "A Beautiful Mind" based on the true story of John Nash. I really recommend watching it, it's wonderful.**

**Anyway, I hope you all enjoy. Glad to be back. It's been a while. **

**The Magic of Madness **

The campus was beautiful. The autumn colors shone through every colored leaf, drifting from the trees to the ground as a warm wind rustled the branches. The dimmer sun shone patterns onto the dark green grass that covered the ground. He followed the triangles and squares of sunlight that moved with each gust of wind and each shift of the clouds.

Noises, the sound of talking, woke him from his trance and he looked up to see a gaggle of students (he guessed by their casual suits and loud babble). He headed towards them but remained on the outskirts. It was no surprise that not one of them approached him. He was used to it, his strange manner and what was sometimes described as fragile appearance seemed to ward off many people. He was a genius, yes, that's why he was here, at Princeton. But other than that, he lacked those other skills that many of the other students among him. The social skills, you could say.

Attention was called as a man in a black suit approached the group, Allen recognized him as the Economic Advertiser. "I'd like to welcome you all here." The man started, "I am Malcolm Lvellie, and I was once just like you. Being a student here lead me to the path that I am on now, which is overseeing all of you. So I both welcome you, and warn you, don't be causing me any problems." A few stray chuckles arose from the group and Lvellie smiled. "Now what are you waiting for, go find your rooms, meet your roommates and get started working. I expect great things from all of you."

The group slowly began to disperse as Lvellie walked back towards the campus, and Allen took this chance to grab a cup from the table of refreshments now that it wasn't as crowded. A man wearing a dark green coat with a cranberry collar shirt underneath smiled at him from under an antique blue top hat. "You're Allen Walker." He said, almost arrogantly, and smirked. "the strange genius from England, correct?"

Allen paused, brushed his brown hair to one side, and looked down at his boot clad feet, then back up at the man, focusing on his nose. It was easier to talk to people that way. Focus on something umoving and unchanging. A nose was funny. It didn't move like eyes or mouths did, it was almost mathematical. That's what he would do! He would write a formula for the movement of the human nose! He brought himself back to reality for a minute. "Why yes….. yes that's me." He said and smiled his crooked smile, still staring at the man's nose. " And who would…. You are?" He asked.

The man lowered his head a bit and caught Allen's gaze. "Tyki Mikk." He held out a hand and Allen looked down and paused, then slowly shook it.

"I know you." Allen stated and looked him in the eyes for a second only to glance down again. "I read your paper on mathematical function of human anticipation, it's incorrect." Movement out of the corner of his eye distracted his attention. It was a flock of pigeons. Allen walked towards them and began to watch their movement as they all went after the pieces of bread that had fallen from the table. No, that's what he would do. He would create a formula on the movement of pigeons.

He barely heard Tyki's murmur of "freak" and the soft chortle of laugher that followed.

….

No one was in the room when he entered. There was a desk up against a large window, and two twin beds on the outskirts of the small but decent sized room. There was a dresser next to the door, and a small blue lamp was snuggled up between the wall and the end of one of the beds. Allen made his way over to the large window, and sat on the desk, pulling out a pen. It's what he liked to do, formulas had covered his windows and mirrors at home. He felt a bit intimidated here, all the other students had already had published works, while he did not. He knew he needed to get recognition if he was to succeed here.

The door to the room slammed open, interrupting his thoughts. "Honey, I'm home." Rang through the room and Allen snapped his head towards the source of the noise. A disheveled red head with a suitcase in one hand and a flask in the other smiled at him. "Hey. I'm Lavi, Lavi Bookman. And I'm your roommate I take it?" Allen nodded and the man, Lavi, sighed and threw his bag on one of the bed. "Thank god I found the right room. So, do you talk?"

Allen cleared his throat and nodded. "Yes… I figure I do, when there are words to say yes of course." He paused again and looked at Lavi's face. He noted he was wearing glasses, one frame covered with black tape. He focused on that covered eye. Unchanging, mathematical. It was square. He liked squares. Squares were very easy, their formula. Width time length. With rectangles the sides were different sides, but with squares length and width were the same. Squares made sense.

Lavi grinned and walked closer, and offered up the flask. "You look like you could use a drink he said." Allen eyed the flask. It was also square. He liked squares. He took it and downed a swallow. The liquid was bitter and burned his throat, but he didn't cough, there wasn't a formula for coughing. Maybe that would be what he would do! Maybe he would create a formula for coughing. That would be it!

….

With winter came snow, and with snow came cold mornings spent in front of the window. Sometimes Allen would head to the library with his marker in one hand and his notebook in the other. They had bigger windows there. Snowfall was also interesting, but he couldn't seem to figure out the formula for snowflakes. That specific morning had been different than usual, Lvellie had called him down to his office in the main building.

The walls were a lime green color and Lvellie had dark wood furniture. The chair he was seated in was wooden, not very comfortable. Lvellie was sitting in front of him, and he was not smiling. "Allen." He stated and Allen looked up, made eye contact for a second, and then focuses on his nose.

Allen liked noses, noses were funny, almost mathematical. "Yes sir." He said.

"Look, Allen, from the minute you came here you were at a disadvantage. You didn't have anything published. And you still haven't. You need something and fast, because you aren't going to your classes and you aren't showing results. If not I'm afraid you will have to leave." At this Allen broke his gaze and looked into Lvellies eyes.

"Leave?" Leave…. Allen didn't want to leave. He couldn't leave. He needed something.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. So for your own sake, Allen get to work."

He passed a group of other students on his rush back to his room. "Walker," someone called out and he looked over to see Tyki seated at a chess board with a large amount of students surrounding him. He waved somewhat stiffly and continued on his way. "Walker! Hey, come here!" Tyki relented and Allen sighed and made his way over to where he was seated. "Hey Walker, want to play a game?" He pointed at a dark haired girl with a short haircut and Asian features. "This is Lenalee. I just beat her. Care to be my next victim?"

Allen smiled his crooked smile. "Well that's all subjective isn't it? If I beat you then your last statement would be false… incorrect and the conclusion would be… yes yes I figure I could try." He ignored the giggles that arose. He was used to people making fun of the way he looked or talked.

"So, Allen," Tyki began, after it had been a few minutes of silence, only broken by the few claps and talking of the group surrounding them. "You'd you get that scar?"

Allen sighed as he took one of Tyki's bishops and half-smiled. "Car accident. Ended up being a human logo didn't I?" Tyki took one of his knights and Allen paused. How did Tyki do that? His plan was perfect, mathematically unbeatable. This didn't make any sense.

"I see. I'm sorry, so come up with a formula yet for your project?" Tyki asked and took another of his pieces.

This wasn't going right, Allen noticed, why was Tyki beating him?"I have some things in the works… soon I mean. Some formulas I'm working on."

Tyki smiled at this and then made eye contact with Allen. "Well. Check mate. Guess I beat you at this just like I'm going to beat you for that position." Allen stood up.

"No. How did you win? My strategy was perfect. It was perfect." He backed up and accidently stumbled, knocking the chess board off the table. He ignored the laughter and made a run for his dorm.

Lavi was in there, asleep on the bed when Allen slammed the door open. He could feel tears running down his face, but he ignored them and made a run for the window. "What the hell are you doing?" Lavi groggily asked and Allen turned for a second to look at him, and then back to his work.

"I need an idea. I need a paper. I need to win." Lavi laughed and Allen slammed his fist on the table. "What's so damn funny?"

"Calm down." Lavi said, and walked over. "You'll find it. As for right now, I recommend going to the bar tonight. Let off some steam Walker."

...

TBC


End file.
